
Qass. 



Book 



,sg^ 



OUR NATIONAL SORROW. 

A 

DISCOURSE 

ON THE DEATH OP 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN, 

CONTAINING THE SUBSTANCK OF TWO SERMONS 



y 



DELIVERED IN THE 



Presbyterian Chorch, Johnstown, 



APRIL 16 AND 19, 1865. 



REV. DANIEL STEWART, D. D. 



JOHNSTOWN : 

J. D. nOUGHTALINa, PRINTER. 

1865. 



<♦ 



OUR NATIONAL SORROW. 



DISCOURSE 



ON THE DEATH OP 



ABRAHAM LINCOL 



CONTAINING THE SUBSTANCE OF TWO SERMONS 



DELIVERED IN THE 



Presbyterian Charch, Johnstown, 



APRIL 16 AND 19, 1865. 



REV. DANIEL STEWART, D. D. 



% 



JOHNSTOWN : 
J. D. HOUaHTALING, PRINTER. 

1865. 



8 ' 




Johnstown, April 20, 1865. 
KKv^ D. Stewart — 

Dear Sir : — At the close of the public services to- 
day at the Presbyterian Church, the uuclersigned were appointed a 
Committee to solicit tor pubUcation a copy of your Discourse deliv- 
ered on the occasion, and also a copy of your Sermon on our great 
National bereavement, last Sabbath morning. 

In discharging their duty, the Committee take pleasure in assuring 
j'ou that, in common with all your hearers, they were deeply impres- 
sed with your discourses, and fully concur in the judgment very gen- 
erally and emphatically expressed, that they ought to be placed in a ' 
permanent form, both for the benefit of your auditors, and others 
who had not the pleasure of listening to them. We respectfully re- 
quest, therefore, that you will gratify the public by consenting to 
their publication. 

llespcctfuJIj and 'I'ritlj/ Yours, 

FRANCIS BURDICK, 
DAA^D A. WELLS, ' 
H. E. SMITH. 



Messrs. Bdrdick, Wells and Smith — 

Gentlemen : — I do not feel 
myself at liberty to consult my own judgment, nor to follow my own 
preferences in the matter of your request. Believing that much of 
the interest you attribute to these hastily written Discourses, is due, 
in a large degree to the state of the public mind produced by our 
great National Bereavement, I yet comply with your wish in the 
main. I have deemed it best to throw togethe" the substance of 
both discourses under one text, rather than to give the Sermons in 
their original form. 

Yours, Very Truly, 

DANL. STEWART. 
Johnstown, N. Y., May 1st, 186.5. 



DISCOURSE 



Lam i-:!?'!' ANIONS 5: 15. "The joy of our heakt is ceased: our 

DANCi; IS TUCKED JJf'O MOUUNrNG." 

This day which calls us together to pout out our lam- 
entations over a great nalional calamity, was set apart 
by official proclamation as an occasion for joy and 
thanksgiving in view of national triumphs.* The multi- 
tudes who to-day are surrounded with the sad emblems 
of sorrow, were to have been arrayed in the garments of 
praise. The bells that are tolling out their deep notes, 
responsive to the deeper sorrows of the people were to 
have rung out their merriest peals, in unison with the 
bounding joy, inspired in all hearts by the prospect of 
an immediate peace. But " the joy of our heart is ceas- 
ed : our dance is turned into mourning." The heart of 
the whole nation swells with the same emotion. One 
great sorrow, which for the time being swallows up all 
other interests, spreads its dark shadow over all the 
land — clouds and darkness obscure our social and polit- 
ical heavens — a sabbath-like stillness reigns almost un- 
broken in our business marts ; and the strong men who 
are wont to crowd these marts sit alone and weep. Why 
all this 1 Why is the joy of our heart ceased ? What 



(*) This day was originally set apart by the Governor of the State 
as a day of thanksgiving. 
2 



is it that has so suddenly turned our dance Into mourn- 
ing? Do the reasons for rejoicing no longer exist ? Are 
the prospects of'an immediate peace in any wise dimmed l 
Is the rebellion any more formidable than when we were 
stringing our harps to the notes of praise ? Nay, my 
hearers ; the banner of victory is still borne onward by 
our conquering legions. The citidal of the conspirators 
ajofainst our national existence is patrolled by union sol- 
diers. The confederacy of treason is broken in pieces. 
Its armies are utterly destroyed. The flag of the union 
is everywhere triumphant, and the arch traitors aie fugi- 
tives from the avenging arm of justice. Every day adds 
new triumphs to our past victories. Every day brings 
tidings which in other times would light up all faces 
with gladness. But now the joy of our lieart is ceased. 
We almost forget that General Grant scarcely more than 
a fortnight since captured the city of Riclimond and re- 
ceived the surrender of General Lee and his well appoin- 
ted army. We read in bold capitals that Mobile has fal- 
len, but these bold capitals are less stirring than the long 
black heavy lines by which they are surrounded. The 
triumphant march of the irresistible Sherman, driving 
the last army of the Confederates before him, and utterly 
blotting out the last hope of treason, is received without 
any public demonstrations. No bells are rung, no bon- 
fires are lighted. The flags of the Union are indeed hung 
out to the breeze, but they look sad with their heavy 
weeds of mourning. The streets mourn, the houses 
mourn, the whole Nation mourns as it has never mourn- 
ed before ; and all this, when there are such reasons for 
joy. The darkness for the hour seems more than the 
light. The one great affliction has dimmed our eyes to 
the many great blessings. It outweighs all others. It has 
fallen with crushing weight. It has fallen on every 



part of the land. Our wise, pure-minded, patriotic 
and generous President has fallen — has fallen by the 
hand of the cowardly assassin — in an unexpected mo- 
ment, and at a most critical period in our history. The 
greatness of the National calamity weighs down all 
hearts. We feel that the stroke that extinguished his 
valuable life, has felled us to the ground. We a,re be- 
wildered — we stagger with the blow -—our speech is bro- 
ken. " The joy of our heart is ceased." No sweet music 
cheers it, no glad tidings awakes it to joy. In truth, my 
hearers, there never has occurred since we became a Na- 
tion, an event of greater magnitude. There never before 
has been an occasion when matters of a profound public 
interest were so blended and mixed up with feelings of 
sadness and anxiety — though just now it is altogether an 
afiair of the heart; and for the moment all party con- 
tention and clamor are hushed and merged into one com- 
mon and overwhelming sensibility. Oh how it tends to 
quiet the agitations of every public interest when Death 
steps in and demonstrates the littleness and insignifi- 
cance of all that men are toiling for ; wlien as if to make 
known the greatness of his power in the sight of the 
whole country, he stalks in ghastly triumph over the 
highest seats of office and power, and singles out the 
one on whom especially are suspended the hopes of a 
great Nation ! A few days ago all looked so full of life — 
so full of cheerfulness. Tidings of the most hopeful 
character were flashing in all directions over the wires. 
The country was preparing to give expression to loud 
anthems of praise to the Ruler of the Universe for his 
signal favor to us as a Nation. The embassy of gladness 
had travelled over the land, and the country forgetful of 
all she had suffered during the past afflictive years — 
was about to oSer the spectacle of one wide and rejoicing 



jubilee. Yet why should this event, the destruction of 
one life, sad and heart-rendiug and horrible as it is, pro- 
duce such a wide spread feeling of sorrow 1 Thousands 
have perished iu the great struggle for the life oi the Re- 
public, and the land has been drenched with blood ; why 
let our joys be turned into mourning at the death of one ? 
/s' U t/iat the afixassinailon of our clierhlif.d and noble 
President will seriously) imperil any aubyianlial interest of 
the country? I do not believe it. The times are indeed 
peculiar so far as we are concerned. They teem with 
interests of vast moment — interests which call for the 
exercise of the most matured statesmanship. The prob- 
lems to be solved, are, if possible, more difficult of solu- 
tion, than those which have occupied so much of the 
attention of the country in the past. The questions con- 
nected with peace are likely to be more perplexing than 
those pertaining to war, and to call forth a diversity of 
sentiment and opinion which might tax all the good, 
sound common sense of our lamented Chief. All revo- 
lutions, whether political or religious, are prolific in ex- 
treme opinions and extreme measures. In the reforma- 
tion of the sixteenth century the tide of opinion rolled 
on so rapidly and resistlessly as almost to sweep away 
the land marks of truth and righteousness. The Remon- 
strants carried matters to such an extreme as to place in 
peril all that was accomplished by the wiser and more 
moderate actors in that important drama. That there 
should be extreme opinions and the advocacy of extreme 
measures, growing out of our past and p'esent troubles, 
were no matters for marvel. It may therefore be regar- 
ded as especially calamitous, that at this time, the Chief 
Magistrate of the Nation, characterized eminently by 
moderation in counsel and moderation in action, should 
be so ruthlessly snatched away. The Nation knew him ; 



9 

it had faith iQ his judgment, and in his ability, under God, 
to bring it safely out of all iis difficulties. He was the 
man lor the times. 

Yet whatever may be our fijst impressions connected 
wilh this terrible outrage on civiJization and humanily, 
it must be obvious to all thoughtful obsei vers, that no 
one life, however pjecious, is essential to Ihe well-being 
of the Nation, and that no serious damage can aiise out 
of this most terrible of National afflicfions, so far as the 
existence and stability of the Republic are concerned. 
The elements of strength and prosperity all remain, and 
however much we may give the pi eference to the long tj ied 
and faithful servant, so sadly removed fiom our midst, 
we have yet not the slightest doubt that the same kind 
Providence which has so manifestly watched over us as 
a Nation, during the progress of the great conflict with 
treason and oppression, will provide the needful instru- 
ments to work out the high destiny that awaits the Amer- 
ican Nation. Jf ever any people had reason to say it, 
we have in a most emphatic manner : " God is our ref- 
uge and strength ; a very present help in trouble : 
therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed 
and though the mountains be carried into the midst of 
the sea." In our darkest hours. He has caused the light 
to shine. In our greatest straits. He has brought deliv- 
erence ; and in the present as well as in the past, there 
is everything to assure us that He will, by raising up the 
proper agency, bring us out of all our troubles and make 
us a praise in the earth. 

To my mind it is as clear as if written with a pencil 
of light on the firmament of heaven, that as a Nation, 
instead of being weakened or coming to a stand, we have 
taken out a new lease on existence. As is sometimes 
the case, one disease throws offauother which was threat- 



10 

ening the life of the patient ; so we in our life struggle 
have thrown off the cancerous affection which was prey- 
ing on the very vitals of the body politic. We were wont 
in other times, to think differently. We looked upon the 
Nation as a young giant, full of life and vigor, capable 
of any endurance and strong enough to throw off any at- 
tack, and consequently we regarded slavery as nolhing 
more than an ugly ulcer on one of its limbs, which could 
never imperil the system ; and wliich might in time be 
thrown off by the strong constitution of the patient. So 
we thought, and so we declaimed. We spun out fine 
theories and whistled ourselves out of all idea of danger. 
But the ulcer spread. The day of danger came at length, 
and happily there was vitality enough for the great cri- 
sis. Life prevailed over death. The deadly disease has 
been thrown off. and the life of the Nation not only sa- 
ved but thoroughly regenerated. With the Rebellion is 
ended this monstrous system of iniquity which was the 
great black spot on the sun of our Nationality, the dis- 
grace and sliame of our National profession, the dark 
spirit which instigated all our troubles, which has caus- 
ed our laud to flow with rivers of blood, which has enac- 
ted the most atrocious barbarism of the nineteenth centu- 
ry, and which has now, last of all, covered the Nation with 
sackcloth by assassinating the Chief Citizen of the 
Realm. Amidst the sorrows of this hour and the solem- 
nities of this day, I thank God that the clanking of the 
chain-gangs will never more be heard in our land, and 
that our eyes shall nevermore see what has so often been 
witnessed in our Southern States — human beings, hand- 
cuffed and chained together two and two, and crowded to- 
gether like cattle in a filthy car, so conscious of their 
degradation that they would not look you in the face, 
and for no other crime than that their skins were black ! 



11 

But the end has come and with it a new life to the Na- 
tion, and indemnity beyond doubt, against the machina- 
tions of conspiracy and treason. No ; however deep our 
sorrows to-day, it is not from any fear that the Nation 
will not move steadily onward in everything that contri- 
butes to National renown. 

Is it from any fear that this dark deed of expiring" treas- 
on will in any wise bring damage to us in our relations ivith 
Foreign JYations — that as a people we are bowed down to- 
day? It may be questioned whether at any former pe- 
riod in our history, we have commanded a higher degree 
of respect among Foreign Courts than we do at this pre- 
sent moment. However the opinion may 1 ave been en- 
tertained and perhaps cherished, that our experiment of 
Free Government must, when subjected to such a trial 
as it has faced for the last four years, prove a failure, 
that opinion to-day has very few advocates. And the 
manner in which the Nation has met the grand crisis of 
its existence and weathered the storm, will compel the 
respect of the most reluctant. A war unparalleled in its 
magnitude, waged with a most desperate and unscrupu- 
lous enemy, involving an expenditure of countless mill- 
ions, yet carried on without borrowing from other nations 
a single dollar, or asking for a single man, is an exhibi- 
tion of National power and of National resources which 
must command the respect of the vvhole world. Such 
energy is without a parallel ; and as well by our own 
consciousness of strength as by the manifestation of it in 
effecting what the leading European nations predicted 
could not be done, we have most effectually placed our- 
selves beyond and above any danger from the interfe- 
rence of any foreign power. Nay; our rapid triumphs 
have carried us beyond this point of danger — they have 
placed us on such vantage ground that those Foreign 



12 

States who were so short-sighted as to trench on the 
rights of National hospitality in the days of our adversi- 
ty, will no doubt be swift to make the amende honorable 
when they learn that the Confederacy of treason is no 
more. No ; in the cup of our sorrow to-day, there is no 
such ingredient as this. With victorious armies led on 
by the fii st generals of this or any age — with an unequal- 
led navy, a restored Union and the smiles of a benign 
Providence, no considerations of this kind could evoke 
the utterance: " The joy of our heart is ceased." It is 
in the midst of our strength that we are bowed down. 
It is in the hour when we have no fears to quell that our 
eyes are suffused with tears. It is just at the moment 
when the dark cloud which has so long overshadowed us 
is beginning to break, that this horror of darkness is upon 
us. No ; not in these nor in any of the possibilities 
which a timorous nature might suggest, is to be discov- 
ered the cause of this loud and prolonged wail of an af- 
flicted Nation. 

Tliejoy of our heart ureased because of the great calam- 
ity that has fallen on the JYation — this and this alone. 
Our President, whom we have learned io love and honor, has 
fallen by an assassin^ s hand. Under any circumstances 
the death of the Chief Magistrate of the Katioii is a start- 
ling event. When he dies in I he bosom of friendsliip, at- 
tended by the ministry of love and affection, the deep 
sympathy of the public is aroused. But such a death — 
the extinguishing of such a life by such a hand, fills the 
mind with horror. Words are impotent to characterize 
the deed. There are men of bad passions everywhere. 
There are adventurers in evei'y society, who for the sake 
of gain are ready to waylay the unprotected ; but the 
spirit developed in the assassin, who for sentiment or 
revenge, can thus at a blow cover a Nation with sorrow, 



13 



could originate only in connection with that civilization 
which could systematically starve to death thousands of 
helpless and defenceless men to gratify a fiendish hate. 
That such an event should occur in a Christian land in 
the nineteenth century, under the very tree of Liberty, 
is a nameless horror ; yet is has passed into history, nev- 
er to be expunged — to go down to the remotest ages as 
the blackest crime of a rebellion that has not a solitary 
mitigation. It is to stand pre-eminent among all the dev- 
ilish and frightful tragedies of the darkest periods of the 
world's existence — without a parallel in the annals of 
crime. The history of ancient Rome, disfigured as it is 
by violence and crime, presents no spot so dark as that 
which must throughoui; all time pollute the annals of 
our American Republic. In the first century of the Chris- 
tian era, Caligula, a monster of iniquity — a disgrace to 
humanity — the man who gave utterance to the wish that 
the whole Roman people had but one neck, that he might 
destroy them at a single blow — fell by the weapon of the 
assassin, and no tear was shed over his grave. Domi- 
tian, another wretch of the same century, was struck 
down by a company of conspirators, among whom was 
his own wife. In the second and third centuries, it be- 
came the prevailing fashion of the country to put to 
death by violence the rulers who became offensive to the 
soldiers. In the course of fifty years from the death of 
Alexander Severus, there are reckoned more than fifty 
Caesars, who with that title, lawful or unlawful, made 
their appearance to contend for the imperial throne. 
Proclaimed and then murdered by their soldiers, they 
were the sport of fate and cruelty. As there was noth- 
ing of virtue in their lives to render their memory immor- 
tal, so there was nothing of loss in their death to render 
them lamented. English history is comparatively free 
3 



14 

from such stains so far as the rulers of the land are con- 
cerned. Edward the 2d, Richard the 3d, and Edward 
the 5th, were the victims of the assassin's hand ; but the 
first two were weak and utterly unfit to wield the scep- 
tre of power, and the last was a mere child, who perished 
at the a.oje of twelve years. There have been nuraerons 
attempts on the life of the reigning sovereigns, but with- 
out success. In the history of modern France, wjiile le- 
gal murders have been frequent enough, there are but 
few instances of assassination. Henry the 3d, a weak 
and worthless prince, fell by the hand of lawless vio- 
lence, unwept ; while Henry the 4th, perhaps the noblest 
prince that ever sat on the French throne, was mourned 
by the whole nation. But the assassin was a tanatical ad- 
venturer, from whose mind reason was partially dethron- 
ed, and who, when he had accomplished tlie deed, stood 
up with the boldness of a hero and confessed the crime. 
Yet this has hitherto stood out as perhaps the most prom- 
inent instance where a good and wise Ruler has fallen 
by this inhuman crime. But even this furnishes no par- 
allel to that which brings us before God, as suppliants, 
to-da3^ The conspirators, who plotted this most diaboli- 
cal crime, and the assassin who carried it into execution, 
had neither the apology of insanity nor the manliness of 
the maniac. They constitute but a part and parcel of 
the gigantic conspiracy against the Nation's life, and are 
animated with the heroism of cowards. They have 
made themselves pre-eminent in infamy, leaving all their 
confreres in sin so tar behind, that no parallel will ever 
be found, and their names will go down to posteiity as 
the synonym of all that is horrid and Satanic in human 
action. Indeed it may be doubted whether the human 
mind in its most depraved state is capable of conceiving 
even of a more damnable crime against humanity, and 



15 

certainly humanity could under no possible circumstan- 
ces suffer a more frightful outrage. We stand aghast at the 
insane madness and tiendishness of the act — unparalleled 
in infamy, it is unequalled in folly. If the evil genius of 
treason had been inspired by the very Prince of liars and 
deceivers, it could not have perpetrated a more suicidal 
act. It has stricken down at a blow the only man who 
could or would have lightened the retribution that awaits 
the high handed transgressors of rebellion. It has not 
only made treason tenfold more odious, but it has pla- 
ced the least expression of sympathy with the rebellion 
at a perilous discount. With the exception of a few silly 
people, too few to be of cou>equence, too silly to com- 
mand any respect, it has united the whole North in one 
common burst of indignation and sorrow, irrespective of 
all party lines, and at the same time evoked such an ex- 
pression of sympathy for the existing Administration as 
to make it stronger than at any period during the last 
four years. Was there ever such a crime perpetrated 
with so little motive, nay in the face of such strong mo- 
tives 1 Has the old serpent lost his cunning 1 Has trea- 
son bereft its minions of all thought and consideration ? 
But while over this gigantic crime which must to the 
latest generation disgrace the annals of our country, we 
are sad to-day — sad that such a concentration of wick- 
edness could by any means find existence under the shad- 
ow of our free institutions and in the light of our Amer- 
ican Christianity : most of all is the joy of our heart 
ceased because the hand of the assassin has torn from us 
our good much loved President. We have been called in 
the Providence of God, since we took our place among 
the nations of the earth to mourn the loss by death of 
two acting Presidents. They passed away from their 
high places of honor and trust, with quiet sorrow to 



16 

the house appointed for all living. No such tumultuous 
sorrow has ever before agitated the Nation's heart. The 
respect paid to the honored dead has been formal, mark- 
ed by little emotion ; but now the very fountains of 
sorrow are broken up. The love<l and trusted one of the 
Nation is taken from us. The one we have tried and 
proved is gone and wc are compelled to accept a change 
— when of all times we wanted no ch ange, not even for 
a greater or a more polished ruler. We have had Presi- 
dents of greater abilities, men of more polish, of high- 
er literary attainments, of more personal graces, but we 
have had none more patriotic, none more wise or with a 
better balanced character than our lamented chief who 
to-day is decked out for the grave. And when the fires 
of party spirit are extinguished and the fumes of passion 
and prejudice are cleared away, and his character is 
viewed in the clear light of impartial history, patriotism 
and humanity will cover his tomb with imperishable 
honors. His memory will be held in respect so long as 
the spirit of patriotism swells the American heart, and 
his name will be enrolled among the benefactors of man- 
kind when human bondage is remembered only^ as a 
thing of the past. 

It is possible that so far as President Lincoln is con- 
cerned, he has passed away at the most propitious hour 
for his fame. He had entered on his administration 
amidst the most imposing difficulties. A most formi- 
dable rebellion was fully organized. He was waylaid on 
his approach to the Capital by assassins. He found, on 
his arrival, the Government almost in a state of disso- 
lution. The treasury was bankrupt ; a few millions of 
dollars had been borrowed by the retiring administration 
to meet the exigencies of the hour at enormously ruin- 
ous rates of interest. He maulully faced the difficulties 



17 

of his place. His courage did not Tail him in the dark- 
est days of his administratioD. lie gradually overcame 
all obstacles — saw the credit of the government estab- 
lished and its arms viclorious over the hosts of the re- 
bellion. He was mercifully spared by a kind Providence 
to see the conspiracy of treason overthrown — its capital 
in the possession of the Union and its chief army with 
its officers prisoners of war. At this hour of triumph, 
at the highest point of his official glory, with his mind 
filled with the noblest and most generous purposes to- 
wards a fallen foe and for the pacification of the country, 
he is cut down. His sun is at the very zenith ; an 
established peace would be but the rounding ofi' of 
his glory. It would scarcely give him a higher place in 
the memory of his countryman. He dies a martyr to 
Liberty in the very hour of its triumph over treason 
and oppression. But all this does not mitigate our sor- 
row. With ail the glory that gathers around his immor- 
tal name, the joy of our heart is ceased. We feel as if 
the blow had fallen in our own home circle, and that 
the one on whom we most trusted is suddenly snatched 
away from us. The universal sentiment is one of the 
warmest attachment. He who lies cold in death ap- 
proached, so far as this sentiment is concerned, as near 
as possible to the place occupied by the Father of our 
Country, We leave that noble character without any 
parallel. Let him who was " first in war and first in 
peace" ever stand "first in the heaUs of his countrymen." 
But next to the name of George WAsmNOTON let the 
name of him who lived so devotedly for his country, 
who so unselfishly and untiringly sought its highest 
good, who so manfully and wisely led us in the darkest 
years of our history, and whose pure character and no- 
ble deeds command the admiration of this and other Na- 



18 

tions, have the next place In the hearts of a gratetiil 
people, it is because of this loved anel departed good- 
ness that we mouin to-day. We sorrow because we 
shall no more sit under his wise rule. He has passed, 
0, how suddenly, from our sight! All that is mortal 
of President Lincoln is on its way to the tomb ; but his 
life will ever live. Farewell thou true and noble si)irit. 
The stormy sea of life is passed. Peacelul be thy lest, 
blissful thy repose. We will never forget thy troubled 
life or thy martyr death. Thy name shall live while 
memory endures, and at thy shrine and over thy mould- 
ering ashes will a grateful Nation swear eternal hatred 
to treason and oppression. 

In drawing these reflections to a close, I cannot for- 
bear to call the attention of the audience to two points 
of great practical importance just now made es[)ecially 
conspicuous by the solemnities of this day, the first of 
very general application, the second more particularly 
appeals to the young men of the country. 

It is not impossible that many, instead of remember* 
ing the lesson of moderation so forcibly taught by the 
character of our lamented Chief Magistrate, may feel 
that they are called t^y his violent death to swear ven- 
geance against the entire South, from which this Ibul 
spirit emanated. It is easy to see how this result is 
likely to take place in view of the terrible tragedy of 
Friday last. Bat yesterday the most generous senti- 
ments were advocated. The recent victories of our arms 
had called out a spirit of leniency which was pleading for 
a general amnesty an^ pardon for all but the most guilty : 
and now nothing is more probable than that under the 
influence of the strong feeling of wrong and indignation 
now existing, the feeling of compassion for a conquered 
enemy should pass ever into the feeling of revenge for 



19 

an irreparable injury. Were such to be the case it would 
be but an additional national calamity- The South is 
in no wise changed in its character by this act : and how- 
ever bad, however far from what we regard the civili- 
zation of Christianity, we can not afford to imitate their 
conduct. We did not yield to the strong provocation 
offered by the barbarous treatment to which they subject- 
ed our helpless soldiers in their hands, to avenge the 
injury by perpetrating a like barbarism on their im- 
prisoned men ; we could not do it — we were never slave- 
drivers — we were not accustomed to see men and 
women tortured and maltreated ; and I trust the time 
will never come when as a Nation we shall be left to 
forget tliat we are Christians, and as such bound to 
respect the utterances of Him who says : " Vengeance 
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." It has always 
seemed that our lamented President was over lenient in 
his treatment of wicked men, but we shall always re- 
vere his memory for this noble, humane trait of his char- 
acter. It is manlike to take vengeance ; it is godlike to 
forgive. 

The other point to which I call attention, and espe- 
cially the attention of young men, is this, viz : that good- 
ness is the one trait of character which has secured for 
the memory of President Lincoln this wide-spread and 
heartfelt manifestation of respect. If success in a good 
and righteous cause be the criterion of greatness, then was 
Abraham Lincoln a great man, but his greatness was in- 
separable from his goodness, without which he would 
have had no superiority over his fellows. His incor- 
ruptible honesty and integrity secured to him the confi- 
dence of the nation, and all felt that his mistakes, what- 
ever they might be, were those of a true hearted patriot 
and lover of his fellow-men. Nor does there remain one 



20 

act of his life to cast the shadow of doubt on this feature 
of his character. 

And now, by all that is lamentable in his death, by 
the sorrows, the deep heartfelt sorrows of a great Na- 
tion : by these emb lems of mourning ; by this wide- 
spread manifestation of respect, are the young men of 
the Nation entreated to make first of all rectitude of 
character the high aim of life. An elevated grade of 
intellect, a widely extended acquaintance with science 
and literature may not be within the reach of many, but 
this is within the reach of all. Every young man may 
by the possession of this secure the unlimited respect 
of all who know him. I do not doubt that one of the 
designs of Providence connected with this great Na- 
tional sorrow is to impress, more effectually than it could 
be by his life, upon the minds of young men the 
example of his eminent devotion to this one thing. And 
while the name of his assassin should forever cover 
with such disgrace and shame the slums of vice and the 
highways of iniquity as to friglilen away every young man 
as from the very portals of hell itself, the name of Abraham 
Lincoln will througbout all time furnish an inspiration 
for good and noble living. And as often as the Nation 
sorrowing bends over his tomb or writes his name in the 
high places of the land on imperishable marble, it will 
proclaim afresh to the young men of the country that 
the way not simply to the high places of power and hon- 
or, but to the warmest place in its affections, is through un- 
impeachable honesty and undoubted goodness. Let our 
earnest prayer be that his spirit may revive in [he hearts 
of his countrymen as they shed to-day the heartfelt tear 
over his ashes. 



